Reserved apology

[Mulder]

It seems you can only have an 'unreserved apology' these days, just are all hoaxes are inevitably 'elaborate'. So, what exactly is a 'reserved apology'? Anyone know?

[brodski]

It seems you can only have an 'unreserved apology' these days, just are all hoaxes are inevitably 'elaborate'. So, what exactly is a 'reserved apology'? Anyone know?

In this context "reserved" is being used as a synonym for "qualified".

There was a fantastic example of a “reserved” apology recently when some US celeb or other apologised for calling anti-vaxers “parasites”, as that was using words “in a mean way”, but reaffirmed her point that anti-vaxers behave in a manner which is akin to parasites.

[farmersboy]

An unreserved apology is one when you admit to be at fault 100%, no excuses, no mitigating circumstances, no caveats, nothing.

However, if you feel that may have been some extenuating circumstances that led to you making an honest mistake, then you could make a reserved apology.

I think....

[filippo lippi]

Modern "apologies" are often only for "upset caused."

Weasel words

[Lord Muck oGentry]

I'm not sure that there's such a thing as a reserved apology.

Isn't it rather that an apology is made either without or with reservation? In the first case, it is said to be unreserved, by something like transferred epithet. But the idiom doesn't appear to work for reserved. Or so it seems to my ear.

Perhaps we should contrast the unreserved apology with the qualified, just as we contrast the grudging with the effusive or the halfhearted with the heartfelt.